The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803; explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commericial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the beginning of the nineteenth century; [Vol. 1, no. 13]

1604-1605]

CHIRINO'S RELATION

93

tion was apparent in their lives, as Father Francisco
de Enzinas relates in one of his letters; therein he
continually praises, as one who keeps this matter in
his mind, and is personally concerned in it, the good
disposition of those people, their readiness to accept
the teachings of virtue, and their service to God, concerning which he relates the following:
" It is a source of great consolation to see the purity
that shines in many of these poor women. I know
concerning some of them that, after being annoyed
and even persecuted with liberal offers of money,
neither by gifts nor threats were they in any way
overcome. I also know of other women who, when
they have learned that lawless men have entered the
village, have absented themselves from home and
retired to their grain-fields, to avoid the danger of
offending God. One of those soulless men promised
a young boy, one of those who aid us at our house,
that he would give him I know not what gift, if he
would search after a certain woman for him. The
lad answered that he could not, since he belonged to
the house of the father, assist in such a matter. When
he was told that the father would not know it, he
replied: ' But will God fail to see it, even if the
father does not know it?' At this reply the man
became abashed and ashamed, and' ceased to importune him. From Easter-time until the date of this
writing, which is about a month and a half, more
than eighty adults have been baptized-the greater
part of them very old, but well prepared - and with
these about ninety who are younger. While journeying during Lent, to the village of Leite, we were
overtaken by a storm so violent that it drove our
boat upon the shore and compelled us to continue